Re: books and publishing

From: natashavita@earthlink.net
Date: Tue Jan 14 2003 - 13:25:50 MST


From: avatar avatar

>I don't know about Natasha, but I do some work for a small publishing
company and have worked in the field part-time for a few years.<

You offer excellent advise. Thank you. I'm not a publisher, so I don't
know your end of the business. But what I do know is that my book
would not have sold out 3 times unless I had already created a name
for myself and had the advantage of lots of articles and TV
documentaries mentioning my work.

Perhaps this is the hook. If a writer already has even a wee bit of
recognition and has created his or her own area of expertise, then he
or she will already have sales in the making.

Further, already having self-published and also created a name for
oneself is a fine strategy for getting a sound publisher when the time
comes.

Best,
Natasha

Unless you're a professional and tour talking and selling your book you
won't do too well regardless. A dud poet might sell 50 copies of their
book over time, a zippy one with connections 500 (in Australia or
Ireland, for example).

Print on demand is cheap considering. A few hundred with lighning
source for example gets you set up and they list your book. You can
then advertise it on the web including through a site with teasers etc...
It's dead easy to do the cover and pdf file from word with Acrobat PDF
writer for word (note remember to embed fonts and un-default the dpi
for images to a high resolution). I'm not an expert on web sales.

The big question is when e-ink is going to launch book format digital
paper and what associated programming interactions occur. At this
stage I can only note that one of the founders of eink is now working on
printable chips and circuitry. Cheap flexible circuitry and
already-designed flat paper batteries are obviously going to be part of
the next generation, but the first generation still awaits. Eink's website
is pretty coy. They're really building up to go whammo all at once,
papers and books, if you ask me. Optimistically it's this year, possibly
soon. Hard to call. I think it's made, it's just the manufacturing
finalities
and distribution. They're obviously going gung-ho at these by farming
out functions, based on the coca-cola model (they say).

If this goes ahead, having a sexy book on a website will allow you
downloadable (to digital paper book) possibilities. If so, having sexy
design, credit card facilities, a willingness to offer the book cheaper
and a willingness to advertise by whatever means available is going to
help, including links etc.. Ideally for all WTA/extropian books, cheap
versions should be available on the net, but it's all complicated. I'm
super glad Drexler is available for free on the net. Links to all these
books on all websites are one aspect of things. This means having a
strong, coherent, well laid out connection to texts near or on home
pages, if you ask me (along with links to our peak bodies).

Being realistic, at the moment, I'd recommend you submit your book to
every single mainstream publisher first. Dune got 15 or so rejections,
don't forget. They have the ability currently to get at least a thousand
and probably closer to 10 or 15 thousand of your book into libraries and
bookstores.

However, it does also depend on how much money and time you're
willing to commit. $1,000 will get you a great book launch with 300 or
350 people. Radio ads on student radio, etc. etc.. This is the sort of
thing only a motivated professional with some leave time can do and is
not a money-making venture (if self-publishing is involved). You can
also maybe swing a deal with a small press and fund it but have it
done through them: this is not something that is necessarily easy or
practical.

Towards Ascension
Avatar Polymorph

34 After Armstrong
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ramez Naam" <mez@apexnano.com>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 1:36 PM
Subject: books and publishing

> From: natashavita@earthlink.net [mailto:natashavita@earthlink.net]
> > I'd like to suggest my self-published book _Create/Recreate: The
3rd
>
> > Millennial Culture_ because it is the only book available to
> > date that explains the history of transhumanism. It also focuses
> > on our culture and the earliest films, videos and writings of
> > transhumanists.
>
> Natasha, I'm interested to hear more about your experience with
> self-publishing. As I've posted to the list, I'm working on my own
> book, _More Than Human_, which is an overview of several
transhumanist
> technologies and an argument that fundamentally we ought to
pursue
> these technologies as a way to improve ourselves and our world.
>
> Right now I'm considering both traditional publishing (I'm about to
> start my search for an agent) and self-publishing.
>
> Any words of wisdom about self-publishing? Would you do it again?
>
> mez
>
>

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